Chapter 10: Building an Educational Philosophy For a Changing World

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Case Study

• Described particular district's character education curriculum; contrasted with scholars who question such efforts based on their shallowness or the obsolete way that the characterize moral behavior. (319)

The Dynamic Relationship Between Philosophy and Education

Teacher-Centered Locus of Control Educational Theories - Kristin

• Teachers hold authority to insure students learn what is important.
• essentialism, behaviorism, and positivism are educational philosophies that espouse a teacher-centered locus of control
  • all are rooted in authoritarian principle (truth and goodness)
• responsibility of the teacher whose job is to enable students to learn what is important
• students' role is to attempt to master and follow the directions of those in power who have experience and authority

Essentialism - Briana

• Essentialism: theory that says that there is a common core of information and skills that an educated person in a given culture must have; the core can and will change
• 3 principles of essentialism: a core of information, hard work/mental discipline, and teacher-centered instruction
• based equally on idealism and realism
• Essentialist Focus of Learning
  • the focus of essentialism is to develop good citizens
• Essentialist Curriculum
  • subjects focused on: literature,history, foreign language, and religion
  • teaching methods: lectures, memorization, reading, repetition, examinations
  • instruction: field trips, laboratories, audiovisual materials, nature study
• Essential Schools Movement
  • DR. Theodore Sizer developed the Essential Schools movement to reform schools
  • it is the theory of having students learn a certain curriculum of core information but it specifies that different schools vary based on what their analysis of what is essential is
  • the Coalition of Essential Schools promotes a vision for what students should be learning, including in-depth and vigorous learning
  • Dr. Sizer developed ten basic principles for guidance
    • using the mind well
    • focusing on clear, essential learning goals
    • attempting to apply the goals to every student
    • personalized teaching and learning
    • emphasis on student-as-worker
    • multiple forms of evidence of student performance on real tasks
    • values of un-anxious espectation
    • principal/teachers as generalists first and speacialists second
    • budgets that do not exceed traditional schools by more than 10%
    • nondiscriminatory policies and practices

Behaviorism - Cara

• Behaviorism- a psychological theory that asserts that behaviors represent the essence of a person and that all behaviors can be explained as responses to stimuli
• B.F. Skinner is the most recognized leader of this theory
• Closely linked to realism
• Suggests that human behavior could be explained as responses to external stimuli

1. Behaviorist Focus of Learning
   • Suggests that education can contribute significantly to the shaping of the individual because the teacher can control the stimuli in a classroom and thereby influence student behavior
   • School environment must be highly organized and the curriculum based on behavioral objectives; they hold that knowledge is best described as observable behaviors
   • Emperical evidence is the basis of knowledge
   • Develop learning environments that lead to desired behaviors in students
2. Reinforcement: A Behaviorist Practice
   • Positive reinforcers (things students like, such as praise and good grades) must be used by teachers to foster desired behavior
   • Negative reinforcers (things students wish to avoid, such as reprimands, homework) must be used as well to foster desired behavior
   • Behavior that is not reinforced will eventually be "extinguished"
   • Learning thakes place when approved behavior is observed and positively reinforced
   • Non-verbal reinfocements, both positive and negative (smiling/frowning), should be used in the classroom
   • Students imitate model behavior, so if they witness rewards of positive behaviors, this will influence their behavior
   • Teacher must ascertain what is happening in the classroom environment to perpetuate or extinguish students' behavior

Positivism - Chris

• A theory that states one should only focus on what can be measured, and proved as true fact
  • quantitative measures
  • rejects inner, spiritual motives and causes
• Positivism as learning
  • focuses on the acquisition of facts.
  • development of content standards
    • students are encouraged to create their own standards as well
• Objective forced-choice testing
  • objective testing free from bias
  • measures progress according to content standards
• Direct Institution
  • Teachers identify what students should learn
    • clearly explain it to them
  • Repetition is encouraged
  • Presenting the material in many different ways is also encouraged

Student-Centered Locus of Control Education Theories - Iain

• Although each educational philosophy forms a distinct cohesive whole, all three are rooted in an internal locus-of-control principle, that is, the belief that truth and goodness belong to all persons no matter what their station
  • Progressivism
  • humanism
  • Constructionism

Progressivism - Virginia

• Emphasizes that ideas should always be tested by experiments and that learning is done by the learner asking questions.
• Progressivist schools emphasize how to think instead of what to think
  • emphasis on experimentation
  • their curriculum is an experience-based one
  • emphasizes the process of learning more
  • Students as well as teachers all have a say in what is studied, very democratic
• Some people believe progressivism is producing students who are unmotivated and who will drift through life
  • others (Henry Giroux) believes students of progressivism are vehicles for social change.

Humanism - Lauren

• Humanism=educational approach strongly based on the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the ideas of existentialism
• Rousseau thought children were born with innately good traits and predisposition, not a clean slate
  • From Emile: "God makes all things good; man meddles with them and they become evil"
• Human's born free but become enslaved by institutions
• Educational theory-want to enhance inherent goodness of individuals
  • Rejects group educational structure, want to better individual development of students
  • Think school deemphasizes the individual
  • Education should focus on the individual self and student’s feelings
• Many students today are treated like numbers, especially in college
  • So many students, no relationship with professor

Humanistic Curriculum:

• Goal=entirely independent individual
  • Students need to be active and free to make own decisions
  • Lessons/testing based on students aptitude and needs
  • Teachers don’t give own opinions, let students form their own

Humanistic School Environments:

• Both teachers and students share thoughts, feelings, beliefs, fears, etc.
• Examples of teaching attempts at Humanism:
  • Individualizing instructions
  • Open-access curriculum
  • Nongraded instruction
  • Multi-age grouping
• Examples of Humanistic school environments:
  • Free schools
  • Storefront schools
  • Schools w/o walls
  • Vocational centers
• Individual based edu. can be expensive, not usually popular w/ taxpayers

Constructivism - Sam

• an educational theory that emphasizes hands-on, acitivity-based, teaching and learning
• closely associated with existentioalism
• American Psychological Association (APA) contends that students are active learners who should be given opportunities to construct their own frames of thought
• teaching techniques should include a variety of different learning activities during which the students are free to infer and discover their own answers
• eachers need to spend time creating these learning situations rather than lecturing
• constructivist educators consider true learning to be the active framing of personal meaning (by the learner) rather than the framing of someone else's meaning (the teacher's)
• this view of teaching and learning has profound ramifications for the school curriculum
• if students are to be encouraged to answer their own questions and develop their own thinking frame, the curriculum needs to be reconceptualized
• constructivist theorists encourage the development of critical thinking and the understanding of big ideas rather than the mastery of factual information
• theorists contend that students who have a sound understanding of important principles that were developed through their own critical thinking will be better prepared for the complex, technological world

Constructivist Curriculum

• ideas about curriculum stand in sharp contrast to the authoritarian approaches
• focuses on the personalized way a learner internalizes, shapes, or transforms information
• learning occurs through the construction of new, personalized understanding that results from the emergence of new cognitive structures
• teachers and parents can invite such transformed understandings, but neither can mandate them
• according to constructivist principles, educators should invite students to experience the world's richness andd empower them to ask their own questions and seek their own answers
• constructivist teacher proposes situations that encourage students to think
• rather than leading students toward an answer, constructivism allows students to develop their own ideas and chart their own pathways

Problem-based learning: A constructivist pedagogy

• problem-based learning has recently emerged as a student-centered teaching and learning approach that is in keeping with constructivist tenets
• based on Dewey's concept of teaching through student-centered problems
• centers student activities on tackling authentic contemporary problems
• problem-based learning is a radical approach in that it challenges educators to focus curriculum on student interests and concerns rather than on content coverage
• students are presented with a "hook"
• the hook might be a letter from a civic group, a request from an enviromental agency, or any other motivating beginning
• the hook describes a contemporary dilemma and requests students to take on some real-life role to solve the problem
• problem-based learning usually requires the students to spend time finding the core problem, clarifying the problem, assessing what is and is not known about the problem, gathering needed data to complement what has been uncovered, and finally presenting a position statement and/or suggesting a solution
• teachers act as guides or coaches

Developing Your Own Philosophy of Education

Classroom Organization - Makayla

• Classroom Organization- A multifaceted dimension of teaching that includes the content, methods, and values that infuse the classroom environment.
• All teachers must be able to organize the classroom in such a way that it is conductive to teaching and learning.
• Lesson Planning
  • There are two expectations for the learners, and that is that they are either passive or active. The teacher usually tries to plan their lesson plans around that particular style.
    • If they are considered to be passive, the lesson plan might emphasize students’ absorption of the material.
    • Adherents of teaching styles that consider the learners to be active would tend to emphasize the processes and skills to be mastered and view the factual content of the subject matter as important but variable.
  • Regardless of the expectation of the learner, the teacher needs to plan sound lessons that are built from a basic set of general objectives that correspond to the overall goals of the school district.
• The Physical Setting
  • Traditionally, classrooms have been arranged in rows and columns because this was thought to be the best for classroom control and supervisions. Now, oftentimes elementary school teachers will rearrange the classroom into small circles for special groupings in reading, mathematics, and other specific subjects.
  • Student-centered locus of control theories tend to support more open classrooms. The teacher intends learning to be divergent and the student is expected to be active in the learning process.
• Student Assessment and Evaluation
  • If the subject matter is treated as a bundle of information, teacher-made tests will tend to seek certain facts and concepts as the “right” answer, emphasizing convergent thinking.
  • If the subject matter is treated as big ideas that are applicable to problem solving, students are expected to engage in the learning process and maybe arrive at several “right” answers, and teacher made tests tend to allow for more divergent teaching.
  • Teacher philosophies will emphasize how much they place on student’s academic performance.
    • Generally, teachers who support student-centered authority and look for divergence in learning will tend to place less emphasis on group norms.
    • Teachers who favor teacher-centered authority for the classroom with a stress on convergence in learning will be more apt to favor student-evaluation strategies that are based on group norms.

Motivation - Allie

• concept is derived from the word motive, which means an emotion, desire, or impluse acting as an incitement to action
• this implies that motivation is internal, and also that there is an accompanying external focus on action or behavior
• Internal: organizing learning environment so that it relates to student needs
• External: permits active participation in the learning process
• With teacher-dominant orientation, motivation comes in the role of rules/students achieve because they must, but within this setting, internal motivation is not achieved because students see that the responsibility for their learning belongs to the teacher
• In learner-dominant setting, responsibility for learning is primarily borne by the students/internal desire is achieved, but external actionis not as clearly achieved, students desires do not always match those of the teacher
• It is important to assess how you set up classroom rules and environment and make sure they match personal understanding of where power should ie in the teaching and learning process.

Discipline - Emma

• Both teachers and parents find discipline to be a huge issue.
• Teachers have different philosophies on discipline; some want to achieve more teacher control, while others advocate for less teacher control (more open philosophy).
• Three schools of thought among teacher-student control:
  • Noninterventionists - low teacher control, high student control
  • Interactionists - equal student and teacher control
  • Interventionists - high teacher control, low student control

A. Control or Choice Theory

• William Glasser's theory
• Theory contends that people choose most of their behaviors to gain control of other people or of themselves.
• Claims that people are driven by six basic needs: survival, power, love, belonging, freedom, and fun.
• If these six aspects are not balanced, a student will act out, naturally.
• Theory requires teachers to consider the many factors that account for problematic behaviors, such as feelings, physiology, urges, etc.

B. Assertive Discipline

• Lee Canter's concept
• Teacher is in charge and has the right to determine what is best for student.
• Very structured classroom.
• Teachers are required to develop clear discipline plan that establishes rules, provides positive recognition for following rules, and consequences for disobeying.
• Many claim that assertive discipline is
  • undemocratic
  • does not get to the root of the problematic behavior and is too simplistic
  • child should obey because it is the right thing to do, not because they want a reward or because they are scared of punishment

C. Discipline with Dignity

• Richard Curwin and Allen Mendler
• Method of teaching that teaches students to take responsibility for their behavior
• Students learn how to handle themselves - stress, angry, disruptive behavior, etc

D. Conflict Resolution

• Teaches students how to recognize problems and solve them sonstructively
• Students learn skills to guide discussions about problems
• Students solve problems with minimal assistance from adults

E. Peer Mediation

• Students receive training in empathy development, social skills, and bias awareness.
• Goal is to help students develop a social perspective where the joint benefit is considered over personal gain.

F. Rules for Discipline

• Students and teachers learn importance of considerate behavior/communication.
• Students are to be treated with respect.
• Teachers need to apply critical thinking skills when creating rules.
• Teachers need to examine their behavior to see how it may have triggered misbehaviors.

Classroom Climate - Hannah

• classroom climate
  • a holistic concept that involves a set of underlying relationships and a tone or sense of being and feeling in the classroom
  • successful:
    • students have time to wonder and find a direction that interests them
    • topics have an "intriguing" quality, something common seen in a new way
    • teachers permit - even encourage - different forms of expression and respect students' views
    • teachers are passionate about their work
    • students create original or personal products
    • students do something - they participate in activities that matter
    • students sense that the results of their work are not predetermined
• voice
  • multifaceted interlocking set of meanings through which students and teachers actively engage with one another
  • shaped by cultural history and prior experience
  • alerts teachers to the fact that all learning is situated historically and mediated culturally and derives part of its meaning from interaction with others
  • teacher's voice reflects values, ideologies, and structuring principles teachers use to understand and mediate the histories, cultures, and subjectivities of their students
• space
  • authentic space permits students to...
    • explore
    • take risks
    • make mistakes
    • take corrective action
  • space that requires perfection, does not tolerate divergent responses and is limited is a space that limits freedom
  • community of inquiry
    • students listen to one another with respect
    • build on one another's ideas
    • challenge one another to supply reasons for their opinions
    • assist one another in drawing inferences
    • seek to identify one another's assumptions

Learning Focus - Shaina

• what type of learning focus will you use as a teacher?
• Includes knowledge, thinking, and dispositions
  • what is the proper mix
    • how much time should be spent on knowledge acquisition vs. practicing skills vs. development of character traits or values
    • also, what types of knowledge, skills, and dispositions are appropriate
• you will determine which of these areas you want to focus on in teaching based on your philosophy of education

Using Philosophy of Education Beyond the Classroom

Teachers as Change Agents - Jaime

• four types of change agents-a teacher chooses one to follow based on their personal system of beliefs
  • change as adaptation: promotes stability in the school and allows the students to adapt well to the environment surrounding the school
    • shows changes that occur outside of the school without promoting their own beliefs

• change as rational process: teachers take their knowledge of change and show the students how to calculate out and rationalize the changes that are to come in society
  • change does not occur in a known direction, but must be rationalized to determine
• change as reconstruction: students and teacher work together and discuss the causes of world problems
  • reconsider the purpose of schooling
  • formulate new goals by organizing subject matter
• Change as dialectic: teachers help student learn about the tension between them and society
  • dialectic- type of conflict
  • schools often make the tension worse rather than better
  • to resolve this teachers need to find a balance between responding to the needs of the student and responding to the needs of society

Teachers as Leaders -Sasha

• Teachers should be leader figures for their students and most students can discuss teachers who had a personal impact on their lives
  • The teachers that had an impact on the students were typically those who were leaders
  • Teachers should be aware of the need to be leaders for their students so that they can guide students during such critical periods of development
• Teacher that display leadership behaviors have both a vision and the motivation to make their vision come to life for their students
  • A vision is a mental construct that synthesizes and clarifies what you value or consider to be of highest worth
  • In order to formulate a vision, one's views of truth, beauty, justice, and equality must be considered
  • Five steps have been created to help leaders put their visions into action, which include:
    • 1) Value your vision
    • 2) Be reflective and plan a course of action
    • 3) Articulate the vision to colleagues
    • 4) Develop a planning stage and an action stage
    • 5) Have students become partners in the vision
  • Articulation, planning, and action stages are required to make a vision a reality
• Teachers must model certain behaviors so that students can follow in their lead
  • if a teacher has a relaxed, democratic classroom it is very likely that students will respond in a similar, relaxed manner; if a student were in an uptight teacher's class who was fixed in their own ways it is possible the students would respond poorly to the teacher and therefore not get as much out of the class as a more relaxed environment
  • Teachers should consider the effect of modeling in a classroom and make sure that their behaviors are parralell with their philosophies in regard to education
• All leaders have power, or empowerment, but the good leader will use it cautiously
  • Teachers should have power within and outside of the classroom
  • Teachers' use of power can be classified into two different styles, which include: teacher-dominant and learner-supportive
  • Most schools tend to lean more towards the teacher-dominant style, which is based on authoritarian ideals
    • Students aren't expected to verbalize their thoughts often but are expected to be "receivers and practicing users of teacher-given information"
  • A learner-supportive power style sees the student as someone who should be verbose and is active in a divergent learning environment
    • encourage the active participation of the learner in exploring, learning and discovering to what extent he or she will participate in alternative approaches
    • Learning is divergent and these power styles recognize differences in learning, individual interests, and higher-order learning
  • Teachers also have power to advocate for the needs of children and also to prepare students for the world; "the greater society looks to teachers for guidance concerning the future health of the world"